Easter, 1916 BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS annalists ,summery ,theme ,video audio

Poem :



I have met them at close of day   
Coming with vivid faces 
From counter or desk among grey   
Eighteenth-century houses. 
I have passed with a nod of the head   
Or polite meaningless words,   
Or have lingered awhile and said   
Polite meaningless words, 
And thought before I had done   
Of a mocking tale or a gibe   
To please a companion 
Around the fire at the club,   
Being certain that they and I   
But lived where motley is worn:   
All changed, changed utterly:   
A terrible beauty is born. 

That woman's days were spent   
In ignorant good-will, 
Her nights in argument 
Until her voice grew shrill. 
What voice more sweet than hers   
When, young and beautiful,   
She rode to harriers? 
This man had kept a school   
And rode our wingèd horse;   
This other his helper and friend   
Was coming into his force; 
He might have won fame in the end,   
So sensitive his nature seemed,   
So daring and sweet his thought. 
This other man I had dreamed 
A drunken, vainglorious lout. 
He had done most bitter wrong 
To some who are near my heart,   
Yet I number him in the song; 
He, too, has resigned his part 
In the casual comedy; 
He, too, has been changed in his turn,   
Transformed utterly: 
A terrible beauty is born. 

Hearts with one purpose alone   
Through summer and winter seem   
Enchanted to a stone 
To trouble the living stream. 
The horse that comes from the road,   
The rider, the birds that range   
From cloud to tumbling cloud,   
Minute by minute they change;   
A shadow of cloud on the stream   
Changes minute by minute;   
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,   
And a horse plashes within it;   
The long-legged moor-hens dive,   
And hens to moor-cocks call;   
Minute by minute they live:   
The stone's in the midst of all. 

Too long a sacrifice 
Can make a stone of the heart.   
O when may it suffice? 
That is Heaven's part, our part   
To murmur name upon name,   
As a mother names her child   
When sleep at last has come   
On limbs that had run wild.   
What is it but nightfall? 
No, no, not night but death;   
Was it needless death after all? 
For England may keep faith   
For all that is done and said.   
We know their dream; enough 
To know they dreamed and are dead;   
And what if excess of love   
Bewildered them till they died?   
I write it out in a verse— 
MacDonagh and MacBride   
And Connolly and Pearse 
Now and in time to be, 
Wherever green is worn, 
Are changed, changed utterly:   
A terrible beauty is born.

Note : 

Easter, 1916 is a poem by W. B. Yeats describing the poet's torn emotions regarding the events of the Easter Rising staged in Ireland against British rule on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916. ... The poem was written between May and September 1916, but first published in 1921 in the collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer.

Theme : 

Admiration. Admiration is kind of a funny theme in "Easter, 1916," in the sense that Yeats seems like he's always on the verge of admiring the people who died in the Irish Uprising. But at the end of the day,.


Summery :


The poet begins with a criticism of the politicians, both living and those who died in the recent revolution. Even a note of self-criticism is also conspicuous in, the poem, for Yeats begins by saying that he had also been guilty of complacency and detachment in his attitude towards his fellow-Irishmen: now he recognizes that through the events of Easter week, his fellow countrymen have achieved an admirable heroic intensity. Heroic intensity has gone beyond the cycles of ordinary life, and achieved permanence in the midst of lives.
William Butler Yeats 
William Butler Yeats




After recognizing the heroism of Easter week, Yeats wonders if the sacrifice of the martyrs was necessary. But for Yeats it was a needless death, i.e. a death which did not achieve any results. At least one thing is certain that England still remains in power over Ireland after all. Yet we now know the dream of the martyrs and it is enough to know that these people had it in them to cherish a dream and lay down their lives to live up to that dream. One does not know whether it was excess of love or something else which kept them puzzled till death. Anyway, the best tribute the narrator can pay for them (Yeats says) is by writing out their names in verse- MacDonagth and MacBride, Connolly and Pearse. They are all changed, completely changed, not only for the present, but for all times to come. What has come out of all this is a terrible beauty-terrible because it involves the death of so many people and because their attempt was doomed to failure from the start. In spite of these misgivings, however, Yeats ends by granting the men of Easter week — MacDonough, Connolly, Pearse, and even MacBride — the dignity and immorality of verse.

In the first stanza (lines 1-16), the poet speaks of the men whom he used to meet at the close of day when they returned from work. He and the other Irishmen were leading a meaningless, almost comic kind of life. However, his whole viewpoint changed when a number of nationalist leaders of Ireland died as martyrs for the nationalist cause during the Easter week of 1916. The poet was sure that he and the others were leading a life of complacency which he ridicules.

 In the second stanza are catalogued the men Markiewicz, whose voice had grown shrill in Political argument, and the school teacher Patrick Pearse; "this other" is Thomas MacDonough; and "the drunken, vainglorious lout", John MacBride (Maud Gonne's husband). Yeats says, that he has included John MacBride in his poem in spite of the fact the "he had done most bitter wrong/ To some who are near my heart." All these persons, says Yeats, have resigned their parts in the "causal comedy", have been transformed utterly, have become independent and beautiful figures; with the result the "a terrible beauty, is born." The obsession of these persons "with one purpose alone", made them so inappropriate objects in a world of flux. They seem as if they are turned to 'stones' due to their rigid and lifeless determinations. What if these people were misguided? "Was it needless death after all?" That does not in any way diminish their achievement: they sacrificed their body and achieved tragic and heroic stature. Yeats had mixed and ambivalent feelings. Indeed, without this uncertainty, the poem would lose a great deal of its tensioned complexity which make it one of the finest political poems. "That woman of line 17 is a reference to Constance Markiewicz one of the loveliest girls in the country of Sligo, thrown into prison as a result of her participation in nationalistic activities. Yeats believed that one should be flexible amidst the stream of life, and moreover women must have the grace of their female being. “This man had kept school” is a reference PartricTharse (1879-1916), the poet and founder of St. Enda's School. He was one of the leaders shot by the English. "This other" his helper and friend was Thomas MacDonough (1878-1916) the poet and critic. He too met the same fate as Pearse. "This other man" was John MacBride the man whom Maud Gonne had married. Yeats refers to him as "a drunken, vainglorious lout," who had done "most bitter wrong" to someone who were very dear to Yeats (which means Maud Gonne). But even this man rose to the occasion and attained a tragic dignity by his part in the Easter Rising.


The third stanza is also a critique of the hard-hearted revolutionaries who foolishly wasted life in the upheaval. Hearts with one purpose alone... in the midst of all (Lines 41-56)... These persons were obsessed with one purpose alone, their stupid passion for revolution, at the cost of reasonable and thoughtful action and safety. The obsession for the liberation of Ireland made them an unchanging object in a world of change and flux. Their inflexibility of purpose seemed to impede the flow of life. The horses, the riders, the stream, the birds and clouds, all these represent change and flux. But these

ANALYSIS :

Easter 1916 Summary
The poem opens with Yeats remembering the rebels as he passed them on the street. Before the Rising, they were just ordinary people who worked in shops and offices. He remembers his childhood friend Constance Markievicz, who is “that woman”; the Irish language teacher Padraic Pearse, who “kept a school” called St. Enda’s; the poet Thomas MacDonagh “helper and friend” to Pearse; and even Yeats’s own rival in love John MacBride, “a drunken, vainglorious lout.” After reflecting on the rebels’ constancy of purpose, as if their hearts were “enchanted to a stone,” the poet wonders whether the rebellion was worth it. The poem ends on a note of ambivalence and futility, reflecting Yeats’s own reluctance to engage in political debate. The poem is divided into four stanzas, symbolizing the month of April, the fourth month. It is known for its famous refrain, “All changed, changed utterly:  A terrible beauty is born.”